MA Business Success 52: How to Use Charisma to Stand Out from the Crowd & Beat the Competition

Watch the video below Listed to the podcast below Graham: Today, we've got a really exciting topic and it's all about charisma. Now first and foremost, we've got to identify, what is charisma? That's a really tough thing to try and bottle and try and summarize. It's all about the energy in your business and really what we've done is we've identified, Phil, that using the example...and we use this a lot when we talk about charisma and helping people to understand it...is imagine having two restaurants side by side, serving the exact same food with the exact number of staff. One is absolutely packed with a waiting list for months and the other is just empty. What is the difference? Well, it's the energy I bring to it. So how do you summarize? How do you teach energy? And I know the part about teaching strategy is enthusiasm is caught, not taught. But there are certain things that we have distilled down on our journey and reflecting back on our own business that we've identified. There's four key areas that we're gonna share with you and give you guys, the guys listening and the guys watching here, an opportunity to do a little bit of a self-check. You know, make sure they're checking in on themselves to see if they're ticking the boxes and doing the right thing. So what do we got for number one, mate? Phil: Cool. So one of the things that we work on, so in our members' area of our online content, we're talking about charisma but we have our solution that we have is called The X Factor Formula. So one area that we get them to work on is their facility because if we're talking about charisma, the first thing we wanna do is make sure that the facility looks amazing, it feels amazing, it smells amazing, because we want that wow experience with our clients. Graham: Jeez, you know, you pretty much just hit the nail on the head there, Phil, in regards to the perception and people buy with their senses. They also buy from people they know, like, and trust. So before we've been able to develop that trust, you'd better make sure that when they walk in, their eyes are met with that wow-ness. It's not just a dingy place, it's not dusty, it's not dirty. Number two is, well, the smell. And I tell you what, sometimes you've got some of these gyms you walk into and it's like getting a right cross in the face with the smell that comes at you. It's awful. So how do you make sure that it's nice? And then again you've got...there's so many other bits and pieces that go to it, but visually they're the things because hey, if you don't match with your eyes and the smell, well, they're gonna turn around before they even get a chance to talk to the people in charge. Phil: Absolutely. And I guess what we like to do is, you know, I know when we go to schools and do school location...what do we call it? Dojo, dojo...what's it called? Dojo rescue. We're gonna create a show on Fox Tel called, "Dojo Rescue", all right, where we go to schools and we basically check out your school and see what you need improving, but we have a checklist, so if you're interested, look, it's in the members' area, but I'll be happy for all the listeners out there to give that to you guys absolutely free so you can go through and just check your facility out and make sure you've got a world class facility. But topic number two is our admin staff. Graham, what do you have for that? Graham: Goodness, well, look, these are the front line. These are the people that you are generally gonna find that come straight in. When you come into your business, they're the ones that you meet and greet and if they're not red hot, if they're not lively, if they are just a sourpuss, you are going to find that it turns people away. Because people really get...and I sort of said it before...buy from people that they know, like, and trust and if they like them because they're friendly and they build that rapport, there's a greater chance of them coming back. So it's really, really important to have good admin staff trained well and not necessarily just face-to-face but on the phone. How do they communicate? How do they make sure that they're really engaging so to lead people in?, Phil: I know early on when we first ran martial arts schools...and look, one of our schools, actually two of our schools have quite a lean admin staff. So the guys who are doing admin are generally instructors as well. So they know what we expect from an instructor because they've done the instructor training. Now that staff just gets transferred into being an admin person. But how do you get a young 16, 17, 18 year-old person to come into a business and train them in a way that delivers a world class experience and service? I know early on we looked at places like, I don't like saying it, but McDonald's. Now how does McDonald's get all their young people working at a big business, they have one sort of adult manager, I guess, and the rest are all young guys. Muzz Buzz, Boost Juice, you know, like, we looked at places that have young people working with them. How do they train them so that they are well-presented, well-spoken, they're good mannered, and it leaves people wanting to come back to that place? Graham: Hey, guys. For all of you guys watching on this and again listening, we have a Way More Welcome [SP]. It's a trained way that people are able to communicate and look, there's nothing worse than...and this is part of what we teach...there's nothing worse than when someone walks into your business into the front desk, the person's either on the phone or they're at the computer and they don't look up and acknowledge you. It's really important to make sure that you are looking up, smiling. It's an amazing thing. Even to the point of just acknowledging they're there and, "I'll be with you in two minutes or a minute," if you are on the phone or dealing with somebody else. So acknowledging is really, really important. And again, I can't tell you enough, especially with young people nowadays, they just sometimes don't know how to engage with people. So what we do is we don't leave it to chance, we don't leave it to their personality type. We teach that. We help them. We have developed that. And like I said, we got this nailed down, the Way More Welcome on how people are greeted when they walk in the door. And instantly it should be a smile, a hello, a communication in some way, shape, or form. Phil: Awesome, gang. So so far, we've covered your facility, we've talked about your admin staff. Number three is your instructors. Graham: Wow. Phil: Graham, what do you have? Graham: This one is a doozy because of the fact that they are a representation of you. Look, you have to build that trust, that rapport. And I keep going back to it: people buy from those they know, like, and trust. So really what we've gotta do is, they're getting to know you and they're building trust with you. So the instructors need to be likeable, they need to be friendly, they need to be knowledgeable in what they do, they need to have a great energy, but also I very much say they need to be adaptable to the different personality types that walk in through your business. Because if you're a kids-focused school and you've got an instructor who's very kid-focused and then suddenly an adult walks in and they treat them like a kid, I guarantee they're gonna turn back out and walk out the door. So your instructor team needs to have the ability to mirror and match behavior types, as well as building that rapport and can communicate really, really well with not only the kids, but the parents as well, too. Phil: I guess...and to go back, we train all this within our instructor programs and for those guys out there, we have a full, in-depth online instructor program. So if you're interested in training your instructors like we have, you can by all means check that out and just let us know, just shoot us an email at the [email protected] and we'd be happy to share what we've got there for you. But I guess it's for the everyday people, you want your instructors to be like a chameleon. Now I don't mean be something that they're not, but you just, as Graham mentioned, you're gonna have all these different types of personality types come through your business, in your door. You can argue the fact, "Well, no, I'm just gonna be myself. If they don't like me, then screw them," but you're gonna have a very, very small business. You're not gonna be very, very successful, let me tell you that. Your initial contact with someone should be you trying to get to be like them and then eventually you come out and be yourself and that trust and that rapport has been built and then that's how you build a relationship with somebody. In a business, you know, yes, we do want the clients that are most important to us, but we do also wanna go get across that sort of grey area where like there's that sort of stand-off moment where they're not sure if you're trying to sell them something, if you're a good person, you don't know who they are, you don't know their story, you know, never judge a book by the cover. So it's about that ice-breaking moment in that first initial moment. And then through the experience of them in our school, it's making sure that, you know, if our program director or this new client's coming through our business, an instructor will come off the mat...not in detriment to the class going on...they'll come off the mat and they'll go, "Hi, how are you doing? Look, this is my class. I'd love to see you guys down here sometime." And they're like, "I know you're gonna have fun in our classes. Look, Graham's gonna take care of you guys. If you have any questions, ask Graham, but I'm here for you as well." It's that different level of experience that you will be a cut above the rest. Graham: Guys, for any of you guys that are listening and thinking, "Wow, look, I'd love to find out some more," we have in this area the X Factor Formats, a really, really detailed area of our members' section which will go through a ton of stuff on how to grow these instructors. Again when we talk about instructors, we have sales teams in there, how to run through our sales process, which is what you're touching on there a little bit, Phil. Again, how do we grow our adult instructors? And this is something we don't leave to chance. We really value our people. So we really wanna make sure that we're stocked, locked, and loaded in regards to their training. So it's really, really important. So if that interests you, you wanna find out more, go and check it out in the members' section. If you're not a member yet, by all means, log on, sign up, get in there. If you've got some questions around that, again don't forget, just drop us a line, guys, and we'll shed some light on the subject. Phil: Cool. All right, so number four. So we've done facility, we've done admin staff, we've done instructors. The fourth and final thing that we work on in this area is your product. What are you delivering to your clients? Now you might be thinking, "Well, look, I'm a single star school, traditional school. My product is that." Well, I argue the fact. I'm coaching a client right now as we speak who has a very, very traditional style and his traditional style's great, but it's good at a certain level. It's more of an adult traditional program. Now he still needs to add in new and modern age type teaching principles, skills, and techniques as well to keep up with today's time. Now that program, the product that he has for the adult, does not match the kids whatsoever. And unfortunately the guy's hit this glass ceiling and just can't break through. So you need to go, "What am I teaching and does it serve me?" Now you can be a diehard and stay true to your traditions and great, it might be your black belt club or your upgrade where it's just tradition-based. But you need to open the doors to more clients, you need to get with the times, and you need to make sure the product you're delivering to people who are out there is enticing, it's gonna give them the results that they want. Because I ask you...and Graham I'll ask you...out of everyone who's come through our door, what are the most relevant things that people ask for? Is it to learn to punch and kick? Graham: No. Phil: Very, very rarely. You know, you'll get the ones who wanna fight or learn self-defense. That's a small percentage. What did you think is probably the most? Graham: They wanna improve their self-confidence, they wanna improve their physical standpoint, their physical being and what not. There's always the offshoots of, "I wanna get fit, I wanna do this," but a lot of it is really distilled down is self-confidence. They really wanna improve. Phil: Self-confidence. "I wanna get fit," "I wanna make new friends," that's sort of the adult ones. You got the the parents, they want respect and discipline. They want their kids to listen, they want then to improve in school, make friends. So if your program, if your product is not meeting that need, then you gotta check yourself. Because in your classes, although we teach martial arts, that's the vehicle, it should be a vehicle that delivers those things within your product. And if you can do that, my friends, then you're gonna have people belting and bashing down your door to come join your school. Graham: And one other challenge in that area as well, too, is it's great that you have these programs and what not, but do you have them systemized? And do you have curriculum, do you have lesson plans, do you have structure there? Because at the end of the day, what you don't wanna do is be a one-man band or someone who's so skillful and summarizing everything that Phil said, but you're the only one that can do it. So how do you replicate that? How do you scale that? And that's again a really important tip and strategy in there, guys. So the X Factor Formula has got all of these things in there just to make sure that you are ticking the boxes or reaffirmation that you're on the right track. Phil: Well, we're up for time and I just feel like we just opened the book, so maybe there might be a part two or three to this, I don't know. But look, guys, we love giving you the content that you ask for, but we can only give you the stuff that you need if you tell us what you need. So give us a comment, shoot us an email, [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you. Leave a review on iTunes. We wanna hear if you love what we do or you don't. If you don't like what we do, great. Then we need to look at changing the strategy because that's exactly what we're talking about here. If you're not getting the results you want, you have to change so we just wanna help you guys get the results you want, so please give us a review, iTunes, send us a comment, an email. We'd love to hear from you and don't forget the upgrades in the members' area are coming real soon. We're almost finished and we can't wait to get that for you guys. There'll be a video coming out very, very shortly about the back-end, so you guys can promo and have a bit of a look at that. Graham? Graham: Awesome, team. Look, get into it, roll your sleeves up, enjoy, and we can't wait to hear your feedback as you go forward. Phil: Go kill it this week, gang, and we'll see you on the flip side.

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